Tilt-a-whirl

More Hubbub, Bub

Alright. It is Sunday and The Husband is on "vacation", which USED to mean that we would go have a little bit of fun and relaxation as a treat for working so hard. No way. NO WAY. We have The Floor Guy (yes, another in the long long line of workers around Chez S) coming on Monday...hey, wait, that is tomorrow. Oh, ewwww. That being said, this feels oddly liberating.

Yeah! I actually liked hearing the juicy BLOP of paint fall to the hardwood, wishing that I had one of those slow motion tools in my brain, to enjoy it all the more, this illicit fun...naughty bizness...devil may care paint on the floor WITHOUT a drop cloth. It makes the act of painting the rooms and being bold almost worth living the way that we are right now.

You see, the two offices have had to be entirely cleared out so that that floor guy can come here and sand those worn out kid room floors into submission and then Varathane them for their second half century. That seems fair but living like THIS does not.

That is my dining room table under all of that office and other related crapola. Yeah and the entire stock of dyed yarn is there as well. It is like we are camping again...doing over the kitchen again...whatever life altering thing that you can do in a house that would cause such upheaval. Yeah, we know how to LIVE, don't we? Nutty nut nuts. I was going to cancel the floor guy when we went into the holding pattern, simply because I knew that life was going to stink for another week but then I came to my senses and said SELF, you might as well get it over with...rip the Band-aid and paint the outside of the house and have the floors done. At LEAST The Husband is here to enjoy the pain of it all. It is taking him for freaking EVER to go through his treasures (ahem, this guy can collect a lot of STUFF) and box them for clearing out his room. I finished painting my room and then went in to start on his and MAN, the guy can SIGH! That's fine, I left him TWO walls to paint, once all of his stuff is out of the room and out here.

Laugh all that you want...it could be YOU next. Home improvement heaven, I tell ya. Forced fix-up. More neighbors found out about our predicament last night and were sorry to see the blue house go. SEE??? People LIKE houses that do not look like everybody else's house...yeah, except home buyers. I dunno, if we stay, I will doll up the walls with garden art and call it a day.

Off to the nursery to cash in my Bonus Bucks that I collected months ago...we get to use them for half off of stuff in July. Ahhhhh, it is the last day of July...time to do it, dontcha think? If nothing else, my treasures will reside in their pots until I know if we go or stay.

Still colorful in a beige world

Today is the day that I think I will hear the last of the dulcid tones of Brazilian Portuguese. John, (Jao?) the boss and only English speaker is supposed to come today to inspect, scrape and repaint some bubbles (grrr) and collect his belongings and his money. He talked to The Husband last night and told said husband to "mark the bubbles" (they disappear overnight). Well, The Husband went hog wild with the blue Sharpie, outlining every little fluffy blister that he saw and there were a LOT of them. The Brazilians are going to be very sad this morning...I don't fault them so much...it was the first idiot that decided that shellac on wood was a good look for eaves. NOT! We have fought with the paint ever since but these guys are The Professionals and so THEY will suffer with the bubbles...not I.

You see...I now live in a Cappuccino and cream house. It is weird for me...really weird. Some whippersnapper at The Husband's job said that we lived in a Hippie Blue house. Hmmmmm....nice talk for a whippersnapper who lives in a prescribed development colored house. It's true, I am going to miss the freedom of having a color of a house that I LOVE but in case we must part with this house, it must be delicious to OTHER people and this color, in the afternoon light is quite delicious, reminding me of a whipped coffee drink with cream on top. You know, those lovely, caloric things from that corporation on every corner.

It is yummy but belies what goes on behind closed doors, which is COLOR.

It took me Monday to recover from the effects of being at the Marriott for the LONG weekend and then something about being closed up in the house, literally, made me drowsy and stupid. No comments...I really AM a go-getter but not on Monday. I literally was not able to get into the dye room until Wednesday, for goodness sake and so orders were put together at a steady pace that day as well as yesterday. As unattractive and utilitarian as the dye room is, it is MY space and where I do my magic and I was SO happy to fire up KFOG and get back to singing and dancing through 10 at 10, which makes the non windowed space much easier to work in. Man, if we move, I will have to get a junker PC for the workshop, just so that I can get the internet feed...I won't do well with top 40 or country (no offense but I NEED my arty farty radio)

Oh, here is the yarn that I was spinning at the Fiberarts Market. It reads a little on the blue side, with the morning light. It is silk/merino in a really deep Wild Things colorway of purple and teal and turquoise and orange. I finished the first half at the show (which is indicative of how slow the traffic was) and then spun like a crazy woman on Tuesday, while I could not get into the dye room.

I know that I have been a rotten blogger this week. :o( No pictures of Junk guys for Helen...no pictures of The Brazilians...no pictures of the Dogz. I do, however, promise to take a picture of Tank's wall before The Husband makes it disappear next week. Yes, he is going to be here to share the pain of having the floors of two rooms (our offices) sanded and sealed, while having the STUFF from those two rooms reside on the now empty back porch. Oh lord, it is good that the neighbors won't know that we are still just The Beverly Hillbillies...now, how can I attach that rocking chair to the roof of the BAV???

Prisoner of Zenda

You see, my lovely blue house is being turned into a nice Mocha house, in case someone that does not picture themselves in a blue house wants dibs after us. Saturday was the day that it began...it began with the windows and today it was the doors.

See that door? That is where I come and go to the Dyeraj...hmmm, that ain't gonna happen. That got sealed up while Michael and Sheila Ernst were here collecting the Rappard Girls. Fine, I can deal. I still have the front door. I go to do my shut-in mother's shopping and come home to a very nice Brazilian with nice hospital corners taping off that door. WAIT! I need to get into The Prison! Oh, heck, the dogs and I can still go out the door to the back yard, even if we can't SEE the back yard from the kitchen or anywhere else...WRONG. That was the final straw...I had my TV, my computer, my dogs and the phone to tell me that there was a there there. Oh yes, there were shadowy figures doing things outside of the windows but only Portuguese was being spoken. Hell, the air conditioner started to make gasping noises and I then realized that it was nicely covered up, suicide style and would suck itself to death if I did not turn it off. Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh. (this could make me wish that I was still at the Marriott...just barely.)

The saga continues. Will he or won't he be offered his job at his current salary, this Long Suffering Husband? Will he or won't he take it? Will we or won't we leave the bay area? Will I or won't I become a cowboy? Stay tuned...I feel the stress weight building...oh, it couldn't be the therapeutic Margarita, what are you talking about!

Is it me or the room?

Ok, so we got to the Oakland Marriott convention center yesterday morning and found that lower cost or no cost move-in (you pay quite a bit for the Stitches move-in if you have more than one load) was just what we paid for...no help. Oh, for crying out loud...we did not bring our dolly because we are dealing with teamsters and THEY need to touch things with wheels. Um...they did not do much of anything and we were left trying to move the product in ourselves. The dolly will come back to the hall with us on Sunday and we will wheel ourselve out of there in no time. DUMB.

A full day was spent doing our usual set-up and we got home in time to feed the dogs, get cleaned up and fed and then back to the convention center for the two hour preview. Hmmm, where were the hordes? Not many hordes, baby...not Stitches hordes. :o( Let's face it...the preview is there to test the mettle of the vendors...can we set it up and still smile for the two hours leading to 9 pm. If there are hordes...no problem, if not...YAWN.

Ok, so we get home and Tank is just wiggling away in his usual puppy manner. You see, the day before yesterday, when I had to put them into our bedroom (too many workmen coming and going) good old Tankmeister decided that chewing on the bedroom wall by the door was ever so wonderful. Come onnnnnnnnnnnnnn! He had a serious dent going on there but The Husband sez that he can fix it...wall putty...etc. No problem. Got that scenario? We get home from the opening and I go into the bedroom to change out of my show duds and hmmm, what is all of that stuff on the floor...(this is where Tank's name changes from Tank to BAD DOG. Yes folks, The Dog Formerly Know As Tank dug and chewed through the wall...CHEWED THROUGH THE WALL. Go ahead...laugh your head off. There is a hole about 5 inches in diameter in that wall and I am so surprised that he did not go all the way through and out the other side! Oyyyyyyy. He was not locked in the room...no way. He was free to roam around and hang with Sasha and he chose to embellish his handiwork of the day before.

Today, we have a large box and a chair in front of the sculptural endeavor and only lost some paper to the puppy boredom. That I can deal with, believe me.

On to getting ready for today's day. We greeted The Brazilians and were happy to see them and their tools. They got to work right away and there was a lot of industrious paint scraping going on around here. We lolligagged around and knew that we had enough time to stop at Togo's on the way into Oakland for the 10 am opening...ahem, except when we got to the Marriott, there were civilians in the hall already. WHAT? Oh, no. Every show that I have done in my 23 year career starts at 10 am...not this show...it opened at NINE. I just started to laugh at myself...I did not check the time. So, WE started at 10 am and everyone else started at 9, quite happily without us. My my my.

Here's hoping that the general public gets the message and that we get some more traffic into the hall because if it is anything like today, the major vendors that have travelled to do this show will say phooey and not return, preferring to climb into the zoo that is Stitches. Seriously, this is a lovely fiber market and quite manageable...one with something for everyone, I think. There are a couple of yarn stores as well as fiber dealers, dyers, buttons and books. Good stuff! Heck, Linda Diak of Grafton Fibers drove all the way from Vermont to thrill the bay area with her beautiful stuff and so people need to turn out to see her! There will be free knitting and crochet classes given and so if you have a friend that has thought about learning, now is the time!

Ok, off of the soapbox.

Alison, it was great to see you and your Mr Toad's Wild Ride wheelchair. People, this woman can go really fast...you should see her silver hair waving in the breeze she creates. Hah! Janice, how wonderful to finally meet your mom...we have only known each other for about 49 years, people...scarey about doing a show in your home town. :o)

That is all of my report. Mention the blog and you get a discount...shameless plug, I know.

Off to TKGA

The van is packed and what's done is done. :o) The Husband has taken the BAV down to the gas station to fill it with European Gas...you know, the 9 bazillion dollars to fill the tank gas, which might as well be European by the price they charge in this town. (the gas station is one of the few left here and close to the street that the Multi-bazillionaire's use to exit their fancy part of town...hence the European prices. SIGH) Oh well, it is a short short drive to Oakland and that makes this Market a snap to do.

I can't wait to get one of my wonderful hugs from my buddy, Sheila Ernst, who will be doing the show with her husband Michael. They are such great people. Sheila is coming to get the "Rappard Sisters" (my Wee Peggy and Mitzi) on Sunday, to give them a lovely new home. She has learned to spin on a spindle and I want her to have my wheels, to have the wonderful rhythmic and soothing repetitive motion of making yarn for herself. She may never want to touch a torch again. Hah! I never wanted to SELL my first wheels and this gift to Sheila is perfect because it is an adoption by a friend...I know that my beloved wheels will have a great new home.

My chicken coop is All Gone! The young guys did a great job of clean up and haul away and it was money well spent. Today, while we are setting up at The Marriott, our nice Brazilian painter will be scraping away at our house, which will probably drive The Thundering Herd to drink...

All right, you lot...chat amongst yourselves and if in Oakland, come by and say hello!

Yes, well...

Thank you all for commiserating. I fell into a wallow last night and had a good pout, thinking that my dream of being a cowboy was at an end. The Husband said that we should just stay put and manage from here. Ummmmm...

I know that this might look like theatre seating but yes, those are the lovely seats of the BAV, tucked into the dining room. They are in the house and quite comfortable but this is how I feel right now...THE SEATS FOR THE VAN ARE IN THE HOUSE! Yes, they are in here for a reason...the roar of the powerwash and then the painting BUT you see, this is a symptom of Small House Syndrome. They are usually wrapped up and HERE!

Now that is awful, but not quite as awful. It is more Hillbilly than not. :oP

We are back in the saddle today. Our real estate guy is sending pictures again and we are back to doing NO WORK staring at homes...

Oh yes, and the two ex-football player looking frat brother junk guys are here now, getting ready to tear down the old chicken coop and get it the rock out of here. This will be a good day...de-junkifying.

Ummmm

I just got the sad, sad news that The Palace is "just" out of our reach. Yup. The owner could not come down to our maximum and so it is not meant to be and we are back on the hunt for the house. I feel kind of sick about the whole thing but knew that it would take some serious, serious mojo for the homeowner to take pity on our offer of HUGE money that was not HUGE enough. Phooey. Double phooey, nuts and for crying out loud. Yup, I am sad. :o(

On the other hand, I have a house that has been water blasted within an inch of its life, halfway around. I have a clean chimney and no termites and will be getting a paintjob while I am at TKGA, so that is nice and positive. The junk that I have been ON The Husband about hauling out of here will be hauled away by The Junk Guy TOMORROW and so it will be very nice here.

BUT, I suddenly feel like I have gained about 50 pounds and it is exceedingly hard to drag myself around. Dammit.

Blues fer you's

Alright, here is the latest in the Saga.

Today has been Dude Day around here.
First is was lovely John from Brazil, who will play the part of our house painter for the next week. Tomorrow he comes with his crew and starts the process by squirting the dirt and flakey bits off of the house. This should really intrigue the dogs, dontcha think? The will probably go Ape-sh*t for the first hour and then settle down to the dull roar against the house. I wonder if I will settle down?

The second Dude was supposed to arrive around 9 am, to scope out our embarrassing pile of junk in the side yard to give us a bid for hauling it and the poor old falling down chicken coop out of here. Hmmm, I paced and waited and then finally decided to paint some more wall in here, since there was no way to go into the dye room and be disturbed suddenly. (It is like finally eating lunch at a show...you pick a dead moment and jam that sandwich in there and BOOM the booth fills up...) So, I wait and wait and finally call The Husband and say No Gotsa the Junk Dude. Fine, we will get a dumpster and do it ourselves. (groan)

Next, right on the dot of 11 am, here comes The Chimney Dude. Yeah, he was super professional, gave me a chimney inspection, a cleaning, changed the spark cap and was almost out of here when The Junk Dude finally made it here. (To his credit, he DID call and I DID say that I could multi-task...) I got to introduce Mr Junk to Mr Chimney, on the front porch and I think that they figured that I had lost my mind. Mr Junk followed me around the property and gave me a bid that came in at HALF of the other bid and so it was a wink, a handshake and he is coming on Wednesday. Woo Hoooooo!

So, tomorrow is the Termite inspection and the power washing. Thank goodness that the termite guy is coming at the crack O dawn and the Brazillian wants to get wet when it is warm out...no squirting the termite guy! Are you feeling my hightened sense of activity around here? Wondering where your order is?

Ok...I DID do a load of dyeing today once all of the DUDES got the heck out of here, so things are moving toward completion, my dear patient folks.

I have two colorful pictures for you. It is because I KNOW that you are tapping your toes waiting.

Pacific Blue Biffle. Ummm, better known as Blue Faced Leicester.

This yarn is a new one that I am checking out. It is a gorgeous combo of 70% kid mohair and 30% silk and I am calling it El Dorado, after our new home county. (No, we didn't hear yet) It is silky and gorgeous and I knit half of the sample with size 9 needles and the other half using size 7, which I liked better. The sample is South Pacific and it is lounging on Blue Spruce. Yummy yum yum.

Oh yeah, THAT show...

The galley slaves inside of my brain KNOW that the king wants to water-ski, right about now. You heard me. The drumbeat (is that my heart?) is getting louder and faster right about now because, you see, we are trying to ready our house for SALE and oh, there is this little annoyance of a show this weekend, for crying out loud. Uh huh. Normally I have the house covered in piles of yarn at this point in time and I had to take yesterday to corral the small piles into tagged piles and then into bins, so that Andrew (our buyer's agent) and Mom can come over here today to sign the papers for the bid on The Palace. I know that some of you think that we already did this but pulling the trigger meant that I said GO to Andrew, so that he could draw up the papers. Ok? He wrote a lovely letter to the other real estate agent and I wrote a lovely letter to the homeowner (got to give them the charm, if you can't offer all of the asking price, you know?) which will accompany the official offer and our big fat "earnest money" deposit. When THAT stuff gets into the hands of the buyer, we will wait for yay or nay. Belieeeeeeeeeeeeeve me, I will shout about it right away, one way or the other.

In the meantime, I have to get the spinning stuff away from the unused fireplace (smoke gives me a headache) so that the Chimney Guy can come in here and inspect said chimney for any damage that might have occured during the Loma Prieta earthquake. He comes tomorrow. Oh yeah...the show. That little thing. Am I ready? Not as much as I would LIKE to be but it WAS a last minute addition to the show line-up (added before all of this job and move stuff happened) and we will do our best to look pretty for the folks that come!

Back to real life? My great friend and colleague, weaver Georg Palmer, turned me on to her house painter last week and so he was on The Husband's list of calls to make. Sure, sez John, I can come over to check out your house and I prefer to paint this coming week. Do you hear the choir of angels singing? This is so unheard of that I just KNOW that some serious Mojo has been swirling around us. He has ONE week open and it is RIGHT NOW. The price was really fair for painting the house AND he is going to powerwash our deck and secure any places where the summer heat causes nails to pop up, screwing the wood down. He wants us to look pretty for our buyers, so that they fall in love with the house. Can you believe it? This guy, who came so highly recommended by my wonderful friend is another of my angels.

Tradesmen are beginning to line up to make us look pretty and we may just pull off the show AND selling this house AND getting The Palace. Keep your Mojo working, people. I feel it every day and thank you every time I feel that back straightening lift.

If you are coming to Oakland to the FiberArts Market (TKGA and CGOA) come say hi, will you? Alison, I can't wait to see your gorgeous shawl. Helle, you can be there in spirit and I will try to take a bunch of pictures of everybody, if it is calmer than Stitches. We'll seeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....

Pulling the trigger

Ok, my spooky friends...get ready to Capital Emm up the Mojo for us now. We took our hearts and wallets and are putting them on the line. I gave our Buyer's Agent the GO sign to put a firm bid on The Palace. Yes, yes I did it. (GULP) We are going for it and can only hope that what we can afford and what they will accept can come together with signatures and you-betcha's. This house and land would be perfect with a capital PEE...the Palace, The Dojo (this is what the original plans called it...no lie), the two car sized workshop, the storage buildings, the land, the 12 minutes from The Daughter and SIL and Trader Joe's (how could I live without TJ peanut butter?) and Kaiser (Important with an 80 year old mother)...not a farm...an artist's home. OMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...